!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> Rolla Peace Newsletter, September 15, 2015

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Rolla Peace News

September 15, 2015

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Dear Friends:

          In this newsletter is:

1. NOON VIGIL FOR PEACE: THIS WEEK, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2015
2. WHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON?
3. BERNIE IN THE BIBLE BELT
4. THE MISFIT MATHEMATICIAN (Tom's column, http://tomsager.org)

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1. NOON VIGIL FOR PEACE: THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2015

We vigil for peace in front of the Rolla Post Office THIS THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2015, (and all subsequent Thursdays until peace is established) from Noon to 1:00 PM. Please try to join us. The temperature is predicted to be in the 80s. If you do not feel comfortable standing with us in front of the Post Office, please consider driving by and showing your support for our message by honking your horn and flashing a peace sign.

2. WHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON?

Kathy Kelly's article begins with a 1978 quote from John Kenneth Galbraith:
“On the one side, powerful military bureaucracies, influential and richly financed weapons industries, their lobbies, their captive legislators, those for whom paranoia or past wars are a way of life. On the other side, only reason, the will to survive, the inarticulate poor.”
Nothing has changed since then, except that the poor are not so inarticulate, as evidenced by what is happening at this little school in Kabul, Afghanistan, Ferguson, Missouri, Greece, Spain, and so many other places around the world. The children who attend at the Afghan Peace Volunteers' Borderfree Center have nothing of their own; yet they are enthusiastically volunteering to prepare and serve a meal to 100 poor day laborers in Kabul on September 21, the International Day of Peace. These children know first-hand what war can do to a country, and they want no more of it. I'm on their side.

Phyllis Bennis proposes some things our country can do to mitigate the plight of the hundreds of thousands of refugees from war and climate disaster — both of which our country has played a large role in. As of now, President Obama has agreed to take in only 10,000 refugees, while Germany will welcome 800,000. As the wealthiest country on Earth, we need to do much more.

Bernard Weisberger's article makes it clear that the Middle East is not the only place people are fleeing. Mexico and Central America, with the poverty, repression and drug wars rampant in the region, has its own refugees, and these are much closer to home. Donald Trump is trying to stir up xenophobia among his adherents, and anyone else who will listen to him. He plays on the fears of working people that their jobs will be taken, that these people will end up loafing on taxpayer money, or that they might become citizens and vote in their own interests. His solution to the problem seems a little extreme.

Perhaps we have forgotten (or would like to forget) the inscription on the Statue of Liberty:
“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

It's talking about all these refugees, Mr. Trump! I'm on their side.

3. BERNIE IN THE BIBLE BELT

Bernie Sanders spoke yesterday at Liberty University in Lynchburg, VA (Jerry Falwell's stronghold). He told the students that he was there because he feels it is important for people who don't agree on many things to have dialogue and try to find common ground. Judging from the enthusiastic response to his words, he may have found it. This article contains a video of his full speech. Here are his concluding words: “We are living in a nation and in a world which worships—not love [for] our brothers and sisters, not love for the poor and sick—but worships the acquisition of money and great wealth. I do not believe that is the country we should be living in.”

4. THE MISFIT MATHEMATICIAN (Tom's column, http://tomsager.org)

Helen's written so much good stuff, I think I'll just take this week off. I do not wish to detract from all the wonderful things she says.

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Rolla Peace News is distributed by email once a week on Tuesday evenings (except on rare occasions) and is posted on the web at http://tomsager.org (click on Grassroots Rolla: top of rightmost column).

If you don't wish to get notices of peace events in the Rolla area, let me know and I'll take you off this list.

If you want to be added to this list, let me know.

Wage peace,

Helen
helenm (at) fidnet.com

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